TV Without Commercials: Boardwalk Empire Season 4 Premiere

Boardwalk is back! The wait is over and season four is officially underway. We watched every character go through drastic changes in season three, and now it is time to see how well they deal with it.

I can’t believe that despite all of the bad blood between Nucky and Joe Masseria, all of it could be washed away with a duffle bag full of money. New York and Atlantic City are no longer at war but it looks as though tensions between Rothstein and Masseria have never been higher. Luciano is Masseria’s boy now, and it appears Lucky and Meyer are never going to be working together again. I really enjoyed the two of them as partners. I wouldn’t say they make the best team business wise, but I thoroughly enjoyed watching their two personalities interacting on a regular basis. I have a feeling it’s going to be really fun to watch the way things unfold in New York City. Meanwhile, Nucky seems to be adjusting to his new life style quite nicely. As far as relationships are concerned, I don’t think season three could have ended any worse for him. Despite all of those horrible things that happened to him, Nucky appears to be a better person because of it. Watching him interact in a friendly manner with Eddie will take some getting used to but it’s really refreshing to see. The way Nucky through that girl out was pretty funny. For as long as this series has existed, Nucky has always been in some kind of relationship and this new girl appeared to be his next love interest, but then just like that, it was over. So far this is a very different Nucky Thompson than the one we are used to but so far I like it.

I can’t tell for certain, but it appears as though either Chalky is losing control of Dunn Purnsley, or Dunn Purnsley is becoming fed up with Chalky White. I’ve never completely trusted Dunn Purnsley but I think he and Chalky White make a solid and effective team. No matter what happens, I just really hope Chalky comes out on top in the end.

It wasn’t much of a surprise the way things worked out for Jillian, especially the heroin addiction. I hope that she is never able to get custody of Tommy, but that’s all of the evil I can bring myself to wish upon her. I have a feeling things are just going to keep getting worse for Jillian especially since heroin has that effect on people. Watching her destroy herself with that horrible drug is going to be really painful to watch, especially if it continues throughout the entire season.

As the series has progressed we have watched Al Capone mature a great deal. The difference between his maturity level in season one and season three is obvious, which is why I don’t understand what happened with him now. All of the sudden Al seems to be his old, childish, self. I can’t help but think that it has everything to do with his two new friends who, as it turns out, are also living with him. His friends don’t even appear to be childish, but it’s almost as if Al feels the need to show off in front of them, and it seems as though they are here to stay. Maybe this will be the season season when we finally begin to see Al turning into the notorious gangster we’ve always known he would inevitably become.

So the season premiere begins and ends with Richard. Maybe I don’t remember season three quite as well as I thought I did, but I don’t really understand why Richard killed those three people in last night’s episode. Who were they? Was this something that Nucky asked Richard to do for him, or was it someone else? I had a feeling when he hid the gun in the pile of firewood that he had gone to see his sister. I had always hoped that he would do that eventually, and I am really looking forward to how his homecoming goes.

There are already so many interesting story lines developing and we are only one episode into this season. I don’t know what to make of this new cop who not only purposely had his partner killed, but then kills the guy who told him about the trap in the first place. I saw the shotgun to the chest coming but I never did and still don’t understand why. I thought for sure it would be revealed to us immediately after all of the killing went down, but it looks like we will just have to wait to find out.